Jeremy Williams's Blog, page 52

What we learned this week

Are meat substitutes actually better for the environment than meat itself? Yes. Yes they are, finds Hannah Richie in the first comparison of its kind.

On a related note, Simplice Nouala from the African Union Commission argues that “there is a strong case to invest more in sustainable livestock systems across the developing world as a matter of climate justice”. Animal agriculture plays different roles in different parts of the world and we shouldn’t lump them all together – as I have repeate...

Building of the week: Luton Sixth Form College

Another story from my Zero Carbon Luton newsletter, which I invite you to subscribe to if you’re in the region. This time I’m looking at a pioneering local building.

Luton Sixth Form College is the oldest in the country, and with 3,200 students, one of the largest as well. It’s also a remarkable example of innovation in sustainable architecture, and I recently took a tour.

In 2007, the college announced that it would be rebuilt in its entirety. When the new building opened in 2010, it ha...

What is integrated transport?

In writing about sustainable transport, I often find myself putting the technology first. Electric buses, trams, bus rapid transit, etc. Or I write about the theory of it all – how we can start with reducing the need to travel in the first place. Modal shifts. Hierarchies of sustainable transport. But while on the train the other day, it occurred to me that there’s a really important aspect to this that I haven’t really given as much attention to.

If we want people to choose more sustainable...

Making less meat normal

Raising animals for meat is a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a massive obstacle to a sustainable future, and it’s not helped by the fact that a lot of people don’t seem to know about it. Governments don’t want to address it either and leave it out of climate action plans. That’s understandable – nobody wants to be told what they can and can’t eat.

Another problem is that campaigns around meat are often run by groups that take a pretty hard line on it. They campaign for vegetar...

The Intersectional Environmentalist, by Leah Thomas

Leah Thomas is a climate educator, the founder of the Intersectional Environmentalist collective, and also a case study in my book of someone who puts justice at the centre of their environmentalism. As someone I’ve learned a lot from already, I’ve been looking forward to her book for a while.

What exactly is intersectional environmentalism then? It’s “an inclusive approach to environmentalism that advocates for the protection of both people and the planet.” That sounds uncontroversial (o...

What we learned this week

“After the pandemic gave people in some parts of the world a chance to rethink what makes them happy, and as the scale of change necessary to address the climate crisis becomes clearer, postgrowth ideas are gaining more mainstream recognition.” CNN’s turn to look into postgrowth.

Elizabeth Kolbert’s Climate Change A-Z is an imaginative and nicely illustrated long read for the New Yorker. Full of surprises and well worth a read this weekend.

Europe’s biggest electric storage battery was swi...

Film review: Utama

I posted the trailer for the film Utama a few weeks back, and having now seen the film, I thought I’d follow up with a review.

Utama, which means ‘our home’, is set in the highlands of Bolivia. It tells the story of an elderly Quechua couple eking out a living in an unforgivingly dry region. Virginio herds llamas. Sisa manages a cottage garden, trying to coax plants out of the dust. It’s also her job to carry the water.

Neither of them are fit for these challenges. Virginio is unwell ...

Every job is a climate job

There are good things and bad things about being known as a climate person in my social circles. One of the more odd ones is the way that people (specifically: men) feel the need to apologise to me when ordering a burger in my presence, as if I was personal friends with the cow.

I also hear unsolicited confessions. I never criticise my friends over their choices – that would be a good way to not have any friends. But I guess people feel bad about certain things and want to offer an explanati...

Video: mental health and the economic system

The drive for growth at all costs underpins our economy, and was made explicit by the brief Liz Truss ‘government’. But pursuing every last efficiency and opportunity for growth comes with a cost. The environment is plundered. More is demanded from workers. The gap between rich and poor grows as wealth flows upwards to those with the most capital.

One aspect of this that gets less attention is mental health, and the connection between mental health and the economic system is the subject of a...

The Invention of Green Colonialism, by Guillaume Blanc

A few years ago we visited the Lake District as a family. We walked in the hills and visited Ambleside and Keswick, two small towns located within the National Park and UNESCO world heritage site. This is not uncommon in Britain’s national parks. There are certain restrictions on what you can and can’t do, but people live in them. They drive their cars, run their businesses. Farmers graze their animals on the hillsides.

If that’s how things are done in Britain and in many places in North ...